Participants:
Series Code: JFAN
Program Code: JFAN000018A
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00:21 Hello and welcome to Jesus for Asia Now.
00:23 I'm Natalie Wood, 00:25 and I have my husband Jon here with me on the show today. 00:27 Hello, love. 00:28 Hello and Happy New Year. 00:30 Happy New Year, 00:31 so this is our New Year special. 00:32 Yeah, you can tell by the decorations on the set. 00:35 Right, we want to start out today. 00:37 Well, today is kind of different. 00:39 Yes. 00:41 We want to kind of vision cast so to speak. 00:43 Usually we talk very specifically about 00:45 specific projects about what is happening right now 00:48 or just recently, 00:49 but today we're gonna kind of step back 00:52 and take a big picture and do some vision casting, 00:55 some dreaming, 00:56 you know, it's the end of the year. 00:57 That's right 00:58 and as we look into the New Year, 00:59 we want to look at new opportunities 01:02 that the Lord is opening before us 01:04 opportunities for expansion of current projects 01:07 as well as new needs that 01:09 we've been seeing more and more of. 01:10 That's correct, yes. 01:11 As we move into God's work, 01:13 it seems as though new opportunities are opening. 01:15 So we just kind of want to step back and look, 01:17 what's going to happen in this New Year. 01:19 It's kind of like New Year resolutions 01:22 but it's more like New Year, 01:23 I guess you can say New Year's resolution 01:26 to follow God's will. 01:27 Right, because even though these are things 01:29 that we see right now that need to be done 01:32 or that the Lord seems to be directing us toward. 01:35 He can change our direction, He can multiply our direction, 01:39 I mean, well, we'll be talking, 01:40 we'll be talking about some of this. 01:42 Yeah, it's kind of a challenge when your silent partner 01:45 God is omnipotent. 01:47 To know how to plan, you know, 01:49 'cause He is much bigger than we are, 01:51 and so by faith, I mean, 01:53 by faith we claim the promise that 01:55 this gospel will be preached in all the world. 01:57 If we look at it from a human point of view, 02:00 that's going to take a long time. 02:02 It's impossible. 02:03 But if God says it, it's going to be done. 02:05 Right. 02:06 Just a matter of, am I going to be a part of it. 02:09 I want to be a part of it. Right. 02:11 So we want to first start out with 02:13 just kind of a pictorial or a video look 02:17 at an overview of many of our projects. 02:21 Yeah, what God has done this last year. 02:22 Okay, well, let's start with that. 02:24 Okay. 03:10 Pretty cool, huh. 03:12 Yeah, that's really always inspiring 03:14 to see the different pictures from different projects 03:16 all mixed in together 03:18 and kind of an overview of Jesus for Asia. 03:20 Yeah, the next thing we have is kind of a overview also, 03:23 but it has more space for all of our projects, 03:27 and so this is where we keep a list of all of our projects, 03:30 we just go to Jesusforasia.org 03:33 and then we click on in the upper right corner, 03:36 it says a list of projects, 03:37 and then we can scroll through 03:39 and see all the projects that we have it, 03:41 and you know, we always say, 03:42 we have over 40 projects. 03:43 I counted today and we have over 50. 03:46 Okay. 03:47 So God continues to expand the work 03:49 that He has placed in our hands 03:52 which is exciting but daunting. 03:54 Yes, very. 03:55 That God is in control, not us. 03:57 Yes. 03:58 So we can place it back in His hands 03:59 and sleep well at night. 04:01 Yeah, we don't have to worry and stress out. 04:04 No. 04:05 It's a blessing. No. 04:06 God isn't stressed. Right. 04:08 God's not stressed, He is not surprised by, 04:10 you know, the end of time. 04:11 Right, it's not like He got here and decided oh, 04:15 oops, I forgot to plan for, either I forgot to budget for, 04:18 either I forgot to put people in the right places for it. 04:21 I forgot that I need certain number of angels, 04:23 you know, it's always been His plan. 04:26 Yeah, from the foundation of the world. 04:28 So we don't know the day or the hour of His coming, 04:30 but we do know that it's getting closer and closer. 04:32 Absolutely. 04:33 And there are a lot of people out there 04:35 that don't know Him yet. 04:36 Yeah, and we're gonna look at that today. 04:37 Right, and so first we want to talk about vision casting. 04:40 We've used that term already in the show and what is it? 04:44 I mean, it sounds kind of intimidating actually. 04:47 So what is it? Break it down for us? 04:49 Yeah, Proverb says that without a vision that people perish. 04:52 And a vision is kind of like a direction, a goal, 04:56 something that's not there yet. 04:59 Something that's not materialized, 05:01 but it's an idea. 05:03 It's a first step in creating something. 05:06 Vision casting is kind of like 05:08 we're throwing out these ideas, His visions... 05:11 Of what's possible, what's available, 05:14 what we see right now. 05:15 What we would like to see happen and just sharing, 05:18 kind of like from the heart of what we see 05:21 as this year could bring. 05:23 2017 is a brand New Year. 05:26 God can do amazing things this year. 05:28 That's right. Yes. 05:29 That's right. 05:30 Well, let's start out first with unreached people 05:33 because that's part of our vision for Jesus for Asia 05:36 from the very beginning. 05:37 Yes, well, an unreached people group is a group of people 05:40 that are separated from other groups of people 05:42 either by linguistic barrier 05:44 or geographical barrier or political barrier. 05:47 So like, you may have one group of people 05:49 that speak the same language 05:50 but they are in different countries 05:52 and they can't go back and forth easily. 05:53 So if you plant the gospel in one people group, 05:55 it doesn't easily jump over to the other. 05:59 So in the world today 06:01 there is about 16, 000 people groups 06:04 and there is about 41 percent, 06:06 about 6, 000 of those people groups 06:09 don't have access to the gospel... 06:12 At all? 06:13 In their language. 06:14 Some of them are completely unreached, 06:15 there is no Christian, there is no resources, 06:17 there is nothing. 06:18 No missionary. 06:19 Some of them have like one to two percent. 06:22 So such a small amount of Christianity that 06:25 the average person growing up in that culture 06:28 can live his whole life without ever 06:30 hearing the name of Jesus Christ, 06:32 without ever hearing the gospel of Jesus Christ 06:35 and without ever knowing a Christian, 06:37 ever meeting a Christian their entire life. 06:39 Just no clue that Christianity exists. 06:43 We in North America don't relate to that very well. 06:46 No. 06:47 Okay, well, let's get started with a map. 06:50 Yes. 06:51 Now, what is this map? 06:52 This map is a map of the Southern Asia Pacific division, 06:57 one division in our church broken down by language, 07:00 broken down. 07:01 You know, we hear about church growth by country, 07:04 but this is a map that breaks it down further by language. 07:07 The red represent language groups 07:09 or people groups with that specific language 07:12 that we have no active SDA work. 07:15 Non, nonbeliever, no church 07:18 nothing happening in those languages. 07:21 So this one of our divisions and this is... 07:24 There is a lot of red on that map. 07:26 A lot of red, yes. 07:27 That could be very discouraging. 07:29 Yeah, absolutely. 07:32 But there is hope, isn't there? 07:34 Oh, there is huge amount of hope 07:35 because you think about it. 07:37 In this one division, 07:38 there is about over 1, 200 languages 07:40 that are unentered at all, 07:43 and yet there are 1.1 million church members, 07:46 Seventh-day Adventist Church members in North America. 07:48 What if 10 percent went? 07:51 That would be 110,000 people. 07:53 All of a sudden 1,200 languages is not a big deal. 07:56 That's right. 07:57 Or what if 1 percent went, 07:59 you know, that's 11,000 people. 08:02 You know, that's like almost 10 people for each language. 08:06 So all we need is revival in missions. 08:09 That's right. That's all it takes. 08:11 Okay. 08:13 So you are talking about 08:14 a revival for mission with people. 08:16 Yes. 08:17 What about giving permission 08:19 especially for the missions that reach the unreached? 08:22 That statistic is that over 90 percent of all Christian 08:25 giving worldwide of every denomination, 08:28 all Christian giving goes to minister 08:31 to the seven and half percent that speak English. 08:35 So North America, Europe, parts of Europe and Australia. 08:38 We tend to give to ministries that minister to me, 08:42 to us. 08:44 And so the unreached are kind of left out in the cold. 08:47 Okay, so like if someone gave a $100, 08:50 how much of that would end up going to the unreached? 08:53 Somebody put a $100 in the offering plate, 08:56 maybe half of a penny would go 09:00 towards reaching the unreached which is sad 09:02 because that's one of our primary tasks 09:05 as a church, as an organized church 09:07 is to spread the gospel. 09:09 The rest goes to maintaining what's already there and... 09:13 Yes, keeping the lights on, 09:14 keeping pastors in the churches, 09:18 keeping resources... 09:20 Which is important also. 09:21 Oh, sure, absolutely. 09:22 And we are not trying to say that, 09:23 that needs to stop so that others will start. 09:27 What we are doing here needs to be imported 09:30 or exported over there. 09:32 There is a need for more. 09:33 Yeah, exactly, share what we are doing. 09:36 Not stop what we are doing but share what we are doing 09:39 with those that don't know we can do that. 09:41 Don't know that we can worship God and praise. 09:45 Don't know that there is a Father 09:46 that's worthy of praise and honor in our lives. 09:49 So sharing that with others and it's like 09:52 Lazarus at the gate of the rich man in Luke 16, 09:56 you know, 09:57 he's just begging for a crumb off the rich man's table. 10:00 You know, right now about 20 times 10:03 what goes into missions goes into our local church budget. 10:06 So in other words, 10:07 what we spend on the local church budget is 10:09 20 times larger than what we give in missions. 10:12 And then what goes in the missions, 10:14 just a fraction of that goes to reach the unreached. 10:17 A lot of that goes to continue maintaining 10:20 what we've already established, which needs to be maintained. 10:25 So instead of taking some of what 10:27 we need to maintain what we've established away 10:29 to go the unreached, 10:31 we should give extra and that should go 10:33 to reach the unreached. 10:35 Right. 10:36 We need to continue 10:37 because we want to introduce our viewers 10:39 to an unreached people group. 10:41 So let's take an overview look 10:42 at some unreached people group maps. 10:44 Right. 10:45 If you're interested in learning more about 10:47 the unreached people groups, 10:49 you can go to joshuaproject.net 10:51 and that's an evangelical ministry 10:54 that focuses on measuring 10:55 the progress of the gospel through the world 10:58 and so we downloaded. 10:59 They have a packet of place marks 11:04 that we can put into Google earth 11:07 and then we can see where all these unreached 11:09 and reached people groups are throughout the world. 11:12 Okay, so the first video is... 11:14 Coming into Asia. 11:16 Okay. 11:23 Wow. 11:24 So each of those dots represents a people group? 11:26 Yes. 11:27 But not necessarily reflecting the area of that people group 11:31 or the size of that people group, 11:33 it's just a dot in 11:35 where they're most likely concentrated. 11:37 Kind of a center of that people group. 11:38 Of their location. 11:40 Yeah, so that people group may cover all of India 11:42 for instance, we just have one dot. 11:44 Okay. 11:45 And now some of these dots could represent 11:47 300, 600 million people. 11:49 Other dots may represent 50,000, 11:52 so that doesn't... 11:53 Okay, so it doesn't, the size of the dot 11:55 doesn't reflect, 11:56 'cause all the dots are of the same size. 11:57 Exactly, but the color of the dot 11:59 makes a difference. 12:00 You'll see some green dots, some yellow dots 12:03 and some red dots. 12:04 And the green dots are people groups 12:06 in which the church is thriving and flourishing. 12:08 Now, this is not the Seventh-day Adventist Church 12:10 only, this is all churches. 12:12 Okay, all Christianity. 12:15 Right, yes. Okay. 12:16 And so the red dot are the unreached. 12:19 All right, so here is the unreached in India. 12:22 India has the highest number of unreached people groups 12:24 in the world for one country, over 2,000 people groups. 12:28 You can see the names popping up 12:30 of each of those people groups. 12:31 India has so many people groups 12:33 because they are separated by caste 12:35 and there are very deep separations. 12:38 So you can see this is one, looking at just one area, 12:41 and we're gonna come back to this 12:43 because there has been some calls 12:45 for churches being built on property 12:48 that we've already purchased, 12:49 that the church has already purchased in this area. 12:52 We'll come back to that. Okay. 12:53 All right, so the next one is South India. 12:57 South India is where we have our orphanage 12:59 and there is quite a bit of work there, 13:01 but as you can see 13:02 there is still a huge amount of work to be done 13:05 which can be done if we just go in and do it. 13:07 Right. 13:08 All right, and the next one is... 13:10 Indonesia. Indonesia. 13:12 Indonesia was on that map that we saw earlier 13:15 from the Southern Asia Pacific division. 13:17 Yeah, I want to tell a little story about that 13:19 because I was at the GC at the booth, 13:22 and one of the leaders from the Indonesian Conference came, 13:25 and he was looking at that 13:26 and seeing how much was red and I says, 13:29 and he is like, yeah, 13:30 we don't have any churches here, 13:32 don't have any believers here. 13:34 And I says, I love to send a team of videographers 13:37 in there to document those people group 13:40 what they look like, what their needs. 13:42 He says, yes, please send them. 13:44 We will support you, 13:45 we'll do everything 'cause their heart... 13:47 A lot of these leaders that I see overseas, 13:51 their heart is to reach to the unreached, 13:52 but they feel like their hands are tied 13:54 because they just don't have the resources to do it. 13:56 Usually the church is a very poor church 13:58 in these third world countries, 14:02 because the gospel is preached to the poor, 14:03 right. Right. 14:04 The poor are the ones that are most receptive to it, 14:07 and so you grow, you raise up a poor church, 14:10 and they are not able to move forward 14:13 like we would like to see. 14:15 Right. Yeah. 14:16 Okay. 14:17 We've got another country to look at. 14:18 Now, this is Thailand. Okay. 14:23 So there is a lot of red ones in Thailand. 14:25 Yeah, they're kind of spread out 14:27 but it's not as densely populated country. 14:30 Okay. All right. 14:32 So we want to look at one 14:33 unreached people group in Thailand. 14:35 Yes, yes. Okay, here we go. 14:43 This is the Lao Krang people group 14:45 and it's in the center of Thailand. 14:48 It's a people that were brought over from Lao, you know, 14:51 100 or more years ago, 14:53 and as you can see with this graphic that focuses in 14:57 on this people group. 14:59 There is no work there of any kind. 15:02 There is no one that's Christian there. 15:04 Zero percent Christian. 15:06 Yeah, no resources, no Bible, no... 15:09 nothing. 15:10 It's not a huge group, it's only 57, 000 15:13 but what if my family was in that people group. 15:16 Will I think it be worth it to go take the gospel to them. 15:20 Yeah. Yeah. 15:22 So we've seen the unreached people groups 15:25 kind of an overview. 15:26 Cut the vision a little bit maybe. 15:28 Yeah, seen maybe what's needed. 15:30 What is one of the most effective ways 15:32 to reach the unreached peoples? 15:34 Well, there is lots of different ways 15:36 that it can be done, 15:37 but what we've found is the most effective is 15:39 partnering with our local Bible workers. 15:42 Okay. 15:43 Opening up the opportunity for them to move in there, 15:46 and day by day live among the people 15:50 and there is not as many barriers 15:53 because where they're not coming in 15:55 as wealthy people, 15:57 they are not coming in as foreigners, 15:59 they are coming in as locals. 16:02 And so our Bible workers have definitely been 16:05 the biggest blessing in since we've started this ministry. 16:09 Okay, and we've got some goals 16:11 or some challenges for ourselves 16:14 for 2017 with Bible workers. 16:17 You know, I just came back 16:18 from traveling through India again 16:20 and seeing the impact of what they've done. 16:23 Our dream is to see, is to double our workforce. 16:29 Okay, so right now we have about 200, 250 in India, 16:34 Thailand and the Philippines. 16:35 Yes. Okay. 16:36 And we would like to see 500 by the end of 2017. 16:40 Okay, part of having the Bible workers 16:43 is making sure they have the training they need 16:45 to be able to go out and teach people 16:47 about God in effective ways. 16:50 And I know that some of the units of the church 16:54 in various areas 16:55 that have Bible workers are training them, 16:58 you know, on a frequent basis they get together 17:00 and they train in different subjects or different things, 17:04 but we need more Bible worker training. 17:06 Correct. 17:07 Yeah, the way that our Bible worker program 17:09 works is that, 17:10 we work with the church very closely 17:12 and the funds go to the church 17:15 and then the local leaders 17:17 on the local fields will then train the Bible workers 17:20 and oversee the work. 17:21 They've been asking us, 17:22 can you please set up a training seminar, 17:25 a training center to train, 17:28 to provide training for these Bible workers. 17:30 That's their biggest need 17:31 and they've been asking us for many years. 17:33 We just haven't had the faith to step out to do it. 17:36 Okay. 17:37 And this year I believe God is starting to move. 17:40 So that's one of our goals. 17:41 That's one of our dreams 17:42 and our request that we place in the Lord's hands everyday. 17:45 Right, right. 17:47 So part of this though, 17:49 once the Bible workers go to an area 17:51 and they start teaching people about God, 17:55 they need to have a place to meet. 17:56 Well, this is the issue that we're finding 'cause originally 17:59 as the ministry we didn't focus on churches. 18:02 We just wanted growth and we wanted more people. 18:05 We just send the workers to seek for the lost. 18:07 Exactly, and we've been doing that for the last 11 years 18:11 but we're finding this year especially is that 18:15 we sense God leading to help build churches 18:18 because we have congregations 18:22 that have been raised up 18:23 and they don't have a place to worship, 18:25 and we're gonna look at some of those things. 18:27 For instance in Udumalpet, 18:29 this is a church that we hold very dear to our hearts 18:33 because we as a family went there 18:34 when my daughter was four, my son was six 18:36 and we did evangelism with five other teams 18:39 in the surrounding small villages 18:41 of the major city called Udumalpet. 18:43 Can you say that six times in a row? 18:45 Yeah, it took a while. 18:48 The leadership in the area said, 18:51 we have all these country churches, 18:54 village churches, 18:55 we don't have a city church in the main city. 18:57 So he says, okay, let's do this. 18:59 And so we raised up 40 people were baptized. 19:02 And now there is about same number of people 19:05 worshipping every single Sabbath 19:07 but they only have a house to worship in for the last... 19:12 that was nine years ago that we did this evangelism, 19:14 and for nine years they've been meeting in rented halls, 19:18 rented facilities. 19:19 The members and the leadership 19:22 just recently got together and purchased some property 19:24 but they still don't have a church. 19:27 This next slide is a church in Assam, 19:30 and I kind of get choked up when I talk about Assam 19:32 because it is such a mission field. 19:35 There are 32 million people in the state of Assam 19:38 which is in the northeast of India. 19:40 We have four pastors, 19:43 four Seventh-day Adventist pastors 19:45 for 32 million people, 19:46 and we're gonna talk more about this in the future, 19:49 so I don't want to spend too much time 19:50 but they requested, 19:51 can you please give us two churches. 19:54 We have property purchased in two different places, 19:58 we need to build churches. 20:00 All right, and let's move on to the next area. 20:02 Yeah, Uttar Pradesh, 20:03 this is the one that I was telling about. 20:05 I don't have any pictures of the properties, 20:06 but I just got an email just last week 20:09 requesting from the pastor that had planted these churches 20:13 in these different communities, 20:14 four different communities is requesting 20:17 a purchased property 20:18 but and this was like 2000 and 2004, 20:22 so like over 10 years ago they purchased a property 20:25 but they haven't been able to use the property. 20:27 So in that society if you don't use the property, 20:31 the government will come and say you're not using it, 20:33 you have to give it up. 20:35 And so there is getting some incursions... 20:37 Encroachments. 20:38 Encroachments from the local community 20:41 starting to take over that property, 20:43 and so he is begging, 20:44 please he is no longer a pastor in that area 20:46 but he is begging, 20:48 please can you help us, you know, put up a wall, 20:51 build a church so we can... 20:53 because the people are still there, 20:54 there are still believers there, 20:56 there is still a community of believers, 20:57 there is just no place to worship, no church. 21:00 Wow. So... 21:02 That's a desperate need. 21:03 Yeah, that, you know, 21:06 I mean it's one thing if you don't have believers 21:09 and you're starting up brand new 21:10 but if it's another thing, if you have believers 21:12 and they have got no church, they are not able. 21:13 For more than 10 years. 21:14 Yeah, lot of these people are, you know, 21:16 earning maybe one or two or three dollars a day. 21:19 You know, how can they afford a church. 21:22 Yeah. 21:24 Wow, well, that's heavy. 21:26 There is a lot of need out there. 21:27 It's huge amount of need, but you know, 21:28 if we all get together, do our part, 21:32 the Lord will take that and multiply it 21:33 and make a big impact. 21:35 Right, and that's the beautiful thing 21:38 about working with God on His projects... 21:40 That's correct. 21:41 Because He has this multiplication thing 21:43 that only He can do. 21:44 That's right. 21:45 Okay, well, we want to talk not just about new buildings, 21:47 but we want to talk also about 21:50 the need for expansion of current buildings 21:52 or purchasing buildings 21:53 that are currently being rented, 21:55 those kinds of things. 21:56 So let's skip over to Mumbai. 21:58 Yes, Mumbai scarred me for life. 22:01 I visited there just recently and oh my word, 22:05 um, what need, 22:07 and I just want to go through really quick 22:09 because we're gonna spend the show, 22:10 a full show on Mumbai. 22:12 Okay. 22:13 But we're gonna show some of the churches that we have, 22:15 this is a church. 22:17 It's the one with the red and the green. 22:20 That's the church. 22:21 And this is inside the church. 22:23 You can see it's a thriving community, 22:25 a story with this church... 22:26 Very crowded. 22:27 Yeah, and very lively, and very sincere. 22:30 Oh my love. 22:32 Worshipping there, 22:33 if I had a choice every Sabbath morning 22:34 I'd go worship there. 22:35 This church was established and is still owned 22:37 by a former non-Adventist congregation. 22:41 One of our Bible worker's parents was living 22:43 right next door to this church 22:45 and the pastor started studying with them 22:48 and started learning about the new truths 22:50 and he became an Adventist 22:52 and he presented to its church congregation 22:54 and they all became Adventist. 22:55 Wow. 22:56 And so then 22:57 they felt call to plant a church in another area, 23:00 so they left and left our Bible worker 23:03 in charge of this group of this church. 23:05 We could then purchase this church from them 23:07 for just couple of thousand dollars, 23:10 and we need to also then 23:12 build a Bible worker accommodations on top, 23:16 on the second floor of this church. 23:17 And then the parents that 23:20 originally started Bible studies 23:21 with this previous pastor, their building collapsed. 23:25 And so we need to help rebuild that for them. 23:29 Okay. 23:30 And so this is one of those places 23:32 that would be very inexpensive 23:34 and it would really make a big difference. 23:36 Okay, and the next place is the Thane slum. 23:39 Yes, now this is not a church. 23:42 This is a slum area just looking down the street, 23:44 there is no church there. 23:46 We've had JFA Bible workers in that slum 23:48 for quite a number of years 23:50 and they have done a wonderful Job. 23:52 They've got over a hundred converts, 23:54 but there is no place, 23:55 no regular place for them to meet. 23:57 And so sometimes the Bible workers 23:59 will pull their own income, their own meager income 24:03 and rent a place for a little while 24:05 but they can't sustain it. 24:06 And so what we're praying for right now is 24:09 to buy a place for our church members in that slum. 24:15 Okay, well, that is a good challenge too. 24:17 Yeah, it's a big need. 24:18 Those churches that 24:19 we've just seen in Mumbai are not in Central Mumbai. 24:22 No. 24:23 What's the situation? 24:24 Is there a church in Central Mumbai? 24:26 There is one church in downtown Mumbai. 24:29 It was built back in the '40s by the original missionaries 24:33 and it's an English church. 24:35 It's like the section office. Yes. 24:36 So we've visited there but that's an English church. 24:39 That's an English church. 24:40 And what's the majority language in Mumbai? 24:41 Marathi. Marathi. 24:43 So, there is no Marathi church anywhere in Mumbai. 24:47 Not downtown, the... 24:48 Where is the nearest one? 24:49 The closest church to that church is 24:51 45 minute train ride away. 24:53 So how many people live in Mumbai? 24:55 Well, there is the Mumbai metropolis 24:57 which includes the surrounding areas and suburbs 24:59 and there is about 20 million people, 25:02 not the size of New York. 25:03 And then downtown Mumbai itself is 12 million people. 25:09 Okay. 25:10 So 12 million people... 25:11 One church in English. Yes. 25:14 Okay, so the Lord gave you a vision 25:17 or a idea or a faith challenge. 25:21 Yes, the Lord cast the vision, did some vision casting. 25:26 Last day I was there, we were in the big church, 25:28 and you know it's built in the '40s 25:30 so it looks kind of old, but we were there 25:34 and we were taking pictures outside 25:36 and I just had the sense, 25:38 wow, no other church in downtown Mumbai 25:42 for 12 million people. 25:44 Lord, we need another church like this 25:47 and I was always... 25:48 In their languages. 25:49 Yeah, that would be good 25:51 and as I was talking to the Lord about this, 25:55 He was like $2 million 25:58 and so I was like, 26:00 well, I can't go that big but what about one, 26:02 and so I ask the president, if you had a million dollars, 26:06 could you build another church like this in Mumbai. 26:10 You know, and there is lots of places in the world 26:12 where we've spent more than a million dollars 26:14 for one church, right. 26:15 So that's not a big deal, I must say. 26:17 Well, and it's an expensive city, 26:19 you know, you never know. 26:20 You don't know how much things cost there. 26:22 It's a cosmopolitan city, very expensive. 26:24 Right. 26:25 You know, it's a world class city, okay. 26:29 And so I asked him, 26:30 could you build a church like this for a million dollars 26:33 and we did some calculating, 26:35 the exchange rate and everything like that, 26:37 and he looked to me and says, I can build six. 26:39 So for two million dollars... 26:41 We can have 12. 26:43 So one church for million people. 26:45 That would be great. 26:47 So this is the vision that God has placed on our hearts 26:49 and I know that He will provide 26:52 because I feel so much joy and peace. 26:55 Well, it's a show full of challenges 26:57 that we've had today. 26:58 Yeah. Yes. 27:00 But it's also a show full of prayer needs... 27:02 And opportunities. Right. 27:04 In this season, you know, 27:05 this movie about Desmond Doss has come out 27:08 and it's inspiring many people. 27:10 As he was on that escarpment, his prayer was Lord, 27:14 give me one more. 27:15 You know, many times 27:17 we as a mission organization have prayed that same prayer... 27:19 Yes. 27:21 One more, Lord, one more. 27:24 One more person who knows about you before it's too late. 27:28 One more church, one more missionary, 27:32 one more city. 27:35 Just one more person that comes forward 27:41 and says I can't go but I can send. 27:45 If the Lord has impressed you to be a part of this ministry, 27:49 you can give your tax deductible love gift 27:51 to Jesus for Asia, PO Box 1221, 27:54 Collegedale, Tennessee 37315. 27:57 Call us at 423-413-7321, 28:02 or check out our website at Jesus4asia.org. 28:05 May God bless you in this New Year 28:09 as we all seek one more for His sake. |
Revised 2016-12-20